By Harley Zipori: New year, new beer. Not very profound but at least it rhymes. It might just also be true.
For the past couple years, I have wondered out loud to myself and occasionally to others, whether this year will be the year of Israeli Boutique Beer. Just by wondering I sort of assume that the previous year wasn’t. It’s true that more and more local boutique beers are appearing in stores, restaurants and bars but its far from a widespread phenomena. And while I haven’t seen polling information, it seems that most people still have no clue that there are beers made in this country except Goldstar and Maccabi.
Perhaps the best place to get a feel for how the beer culture is developing in Israel is will be at the Beers 2012 Exhibition Jan. 11 and 12 at the Nokia Stadium (formerly the Yad Eliahu stadium). This is the second event of this kind that I recall and last year it was clearly the largest beer event that has taken place in Israel. It is different from a festival in that there is no music or entertainment so people are only there for one reason; beer. Tuesday Jan. 11 is for the “professional” food crowd. Rumor has it that every bartender and waiter in greater Tel Aviv goes for a chance to get free beer. I would hope that some people leave with at least an appreciation of the developing beer culture in Israel.
Wednesday January 12 the exhibition is open to the general public. More information at the exhibition website.
Last year’s exhibition was a showcase of local beers including new breweries and the folks from the Taybeh Brewery in the Palestinian village of Taybeh just outside of Ramallah. However the real money that’s invested in the exhibition comes from the large importers of primarily European beers. So this event is a chance to taste whole range of local brews, talk to the brewers and get to know some new commercial European brands and styles that you may have not yet encountered.
One more piece of information before I move on to the more personal stuff is that Jem’s beer is now available at the Eden Teva Market. Teva Market has had a fairly wide selection of local craft beers for a while but Jem’s managed to get in recently with a high profile campaign, at least in the Netanya store with, their beer on prominent display. This last Friday there was even a sampling table with three styles on tap for tasting.
For beer lovers this is good news. Jem’s makes a variety of excellent beers but mainly sells them in their busy and inviting (and kosher!) restaurant in Petach Tikva. The Jem’s story is an interesting one and you can hear it more in detail from a Channel 2 new story broadcast a couple years back.Sorry, it’s in Hebrew but if you want more information please contact me at my mail below or visit their website.
I haven’t written anything in almost a month. December can be a busy month here in Israel since we really don’t have a holiday season and its business as usual straight through the New Year. However our friends and relatives who live in that small part of the world we here in Israel refer to as “hutz le’aretz” have holidays in December. They like to drop in on us for a visit when the whether isn’t sweltering and the flights a bit cheaper. This of course can be lots of fun but it does keep you busy.
I did have a few opportunities to get people to sample my last batch of beer, brewed during Sukkot and mellowing nicely in the bottles. I brewed a pale ale, which is an ale a bit lighter in color than Goldstar or Tuborg Red, which are dark lager beers.
Mine however was an ale, made with top fermenting yeast at room temperature. For this batch I experimented with hop varieties that I have not used before. This ale was made with a mixture of Cascade and a new hop variety called Citra. As the name “Citra” suggests, its a variety that imparts a number of fruity tones to the beer and gets people asking whether I added fruit. It’s interesting to see the reactions when I tell them that it’s only the hops.
One advantage of having visitors is that its an excuse to take them touring a bit. These days in Israel it’s not difficult to combine touring and beer since there are a few brewers that have set up shop in some of the more scenic locations. For the little day trip I planned for visiting family, we ended up in the Ein Hod artists village. Ein Hod is well known in Israel for artists, galleries and museums, including a fascinating museum of music boxes that shouldn’t be missed. However in the past few years Ein Hod has also been known for beer, thanks to the long running efforts of Danny Shlyfestone to promote the art of beermaking at his Art Bar in the village. Danny has made a name for himself in the beer community here in Israel and even outside of it, drawing large crowds of people on weekends and holidays and evenings. He has even been featured in shows on both Israel Channel 1 and Channel 2 (both in Hebrew only). Danny also makes wonderful pizzas that he cooks in his “tabun”, an small oven for making pita. If you come at a busy time, there might also be live music as you can see on his homepage.
Danny’s beers are as varied as his life experience with creative names like “Beat the Heat Wheat” and “Yo’ Mamas Ale”. They cover the whole range of styles from golden ales to wheat beers to stouts. He uses only water, malt, hops and yeast with no added flavors and bottle conditions his beer for the final fermentation leaving all the goodness of the yeast in the bottle. A visit to the Art Bar is an introduction into the world of beer.
For those of you with long memories, I did promise to arrange a get-together at Porter and Sons in Tel Aviv. Due to pressures during December, this didn’t happen. This month is also quite busy. My current thinking is to hold it on Thursday February 16, just after Valentine’s day. That way you can bring your sweetheart and introduce him or her to the love of truly excellent beer.
So please drop me a mail at maof.beer@gmail.com and let me know how that sounds and if you might be interested so i can finalize the plan.
If you have any thoughts please send them to me by email at maof.beer@gmail.com.
